Making moves to beat Kobe’s Lakers

The Milwaukee Bucks has given up forward Richard Jefferson in exchange for Bruce Bowen, Fabricio Oberto, and Kurt Thomas. Many sports writers have already written this at this very instant and I’m also joining in. Just when we thought it was over, San Antonio brass breathes new life to the greatest power forward Tim Duncan and company. Playoff teams are reloading to knock off Kobe’s Lakers and the Spurs are no exception. Many of us, including me, were labeling Duncan’s Spurs as “finished, roasted, cooked, old, and over.” Many other descriptive adjectives were also used in place of those, but there is no need to get into that. One must be thinking after this deal was made, “Doesn’t this make the Spurs lose depth?”

Probably. Probably not. Let’s see what happens in the next few months.

Bruce Bowen and Fabricio Oberto can be waived. They might just come back after a few weeks if it all works out. Bowen would continue providing his patented crack head defense and Oberto is another big body who now just got traded to Detroit for Amir Johnson. Hmmm…did Ben Gordon and Carlos Boozer just become Detroit Pistons? Anyway, don’t you love how organizations do that? Milwaukee sheds payroll. They probably do not have the money to field a competitive team. Coupled with a dwindling fan base and an atrocious economy, the Milwaukee Bucks will remain the Los Angeles Clippers of the East. At least Los Angeles has the beach, women, sun, and a busy lifestyle. What does Milwaukee have?

San Antonio management has a knack of turning crap in to gold. The crap that was filtered out returns back as insurance! How great indeed! Anything is possible! That’s true genius. The negative thing is it does not guarantee anything. The positive thing is that they remain competitive and in a better position that last season. The next step is to retain Drew Gooden. If San Antonio can remain healthy, they still remain a threat. Michael Finley comes off the bench with Manu Ginobli. They just need to get one more big man, but that will be difficult since quality bigs are becoming rarer as Dwight Howard’s makes that the free throw line.

Rumor has it that Danny Ainge, the general manager of the Boston Celtics, offered Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen to Detroit for Rodney Stuckey, Tayshaun Prince, and Rip Hamilton. My initial impression was “man, that’s lame.”

Pause.

We cannot fault Ainge for offering the deal, which was immediately rejected. Boston wants to win now. They’re getting back three quality players that would give Boston more depth to surround Kevin Garnett. If we think long enough after the initial impression, the deal is not bad for Boston. The things that upset me: giving up Rajon Rondo’s potential and Ray Allen’s insane clutch factor. Rondo averaged a triple double in the first round of the playoffs. He averaged a triple double! Not only that, he’s a great defensive point guard. Rondo is ten times the player than Stuckey. He is the absolute best player in the deal. He’s too damn good to give up. Also, Ray Allen is the superior shooter than Rip. In the end, shopping around Rondo like a $2 dollar ho is a huge mistake. Why would anyone shop around a potential franchise point guard?

Finally, Minnesota traded away Randy Foye and Mike Miller for the 5th pick in the draft. We can speculate that Minny is chasing Ricky Rubio. That means Foye was a mistake and Miller is just fodder. At least the Wizards are looking like a competitive team again. Can Arenas stay healthy or is he done?